


hotel key card

by cybercrimes



Category: The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Bottom Newt (Maze Runner), Field Trip, M/M, Museums, One Night Stands, Smut, Strangers to Lovers, Top Thomas (Maze Runner)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-28 14:48:56
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30141207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cybercrimes/pseuds/cybercrimes
Summary: The pretty stranger from the museum ends up in Thomas's hotel room.
Relationships: Newt/Thomas (Maze Runner)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 32





	1. One

The train ride to New York was interesting to say the least. Considering Thomas came from a small quiet little town in Pennsylvania, the usual activities that occur on a New York train car was a bit of a cultural shock for him. He actually was born and grew up in the city but when his parents made the decision to split up (which was a long time coming in Thomas’s opinion) when Thomas was only 10 years old, he and his mother packed up and moved to the historic town of Jim Thorpe in Pennsylvania. Now that Thomas was freshly 21, 11 years away from the once familiar chaos of the city, he was definitely out of his comfort zone. 

That’s why he practically dragged Minho, his roommate and best friend to join him on this field trip for their “History of the Fine Arts” class. It wasn’t mandatory, which is why Minho was fully content staying at their dorm room alone for the entire weekend but Thomas was having none of that. Minho only agreed to go because in his words, “the cute girl from his Color Theory class was also going and he wanted to share a hotel room with her and hopefully get lucky, if Thomas knew what he meant by that.” And of course, Thomas knew exactly what his friend meant by that. 

When the class got out of the train car, and stepped onto the dark platform that was only lit up by a couple of dimmed lights that hung from the metal overhang. They pushed past the large crowd of business women and men that were just getting out of work and wanted to get home to their families as quickly as possible. Their professor had everyone line up against the wall, making sure to tell everyone not to actually touch the wall because of “New York germs can and will kill you” and took count about four times before allowing everyone to follow her down the stairs of the platform to start their fifteen minute walk to the hotel at 8:30p.m in New York City. 

The professor checked each student into their designated hotel room, oblivious to the fact that 90% of her students were just going to sneak out of the rooms and sleep with each other anyways (Minho being one of the 90% of course.) 

“I overheard Dr. Paige checking in that cute girl and her also cute friend into their room,” Minho started “They’re on the floor above us in room 615,” 

Thomas pressed the elevator button and shook his head. 

“Do you even know her name, dude?” 

“Yeah, I do actually,” 

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah,”

The elevator made a “ding” sound and moments later the shiny metal doors opened and the boys stepped inside. Thomas hit the F5 button and watched as the doors closed once more.

“What’s her name then?”

“Brenda,” 

“Hm, no try again,”

Minho whipped his head to face his friend, furrowing his eyebrows.

“What do you mean “No, try again” that’s literally her name,”

“No, that’s her friends name, the one who will be sharing a room with her this entire trip because I highly doubt any girl will want to sleep with you when you mistake her for her friend,” 

“Whatever dude, what’s her name then?”

“Teresa,” 

Minho opened his mouth to question Thomas on how he knew his current “crushes” name but the elevator dinged again, letting them know they had arrived at their floor and the doors opened back up. Thomas nudged Minho with his elbow playfully and walked out of the elevator.

Once they were in their shared room, Minho immediately threw his backpack to the ground and leaped onto the bed that was closest to the window.

“I call dibs on his one,” 

“That’s not fair, if you’re planning on being in  **_Teresa’s_ ** room this entire weekend, I should get the best bed,” Thomas emphasized Teresa’s name, causing Minho to roll his eyes, sitting up on the bed.

“I mean, I guess that’s true…” 

“It is true, now get off my bed with your dirty shoes,” 

The boy huffed but got up off the bed anyways and moved to his own bed that was pressed up against the wall on the other side of the room. Thomas kicked off his shoes, putting his backpack on the floor underneath the window and sat criss cross on the bed. 

“Did Dr. Paige tell anyone what time we had to be up and ready tomorrow to go to the museum?” Thomas asked, pulling his phone out of his pocket to check the class groupchat.

“Uh...Gally told me in the lobby that him and Aris were planning on waking up at like 7 and heading down for the free breakfast,”

Thomas just nodded and read the current conversation in the groupchat. Dr. Paige was explaining to Winston that he and any of the other students were not permitted to drink at the bar down on the main floor. 

“Hey Minho, Winston wants to go downstairs and check out the bar,”

“Tell him we’ll meet him there in five minutes,”

  
  


The boys made their way back down to the lobby and roamed the seemingly endless hallways until they found the bar area. It matched the rest of the hotel’s aesthetic, clean, modern, looked lowkey fancy but nothing super tacky or over the top. They found a small table near the back of the room just in case Dr. Paige came down to make sure her students were following her rules. Winston spotted them from his seat at the bar next to Aris and Gally, quickly jumping up from his seat and dragging the two boys over to Thomas and Minho in the back

“Hey! Surprised you actually made it down here,” Winston smiled, sliding in the seat next to Minho and setting his glass down on the black and gray marbled table. 

“What do you mean you’re surprised? Thomas told you we were coming in like five minutes,” 

“Oh, I’m guessing she wasn’t on your floor yet… Jeff told me that Dr. Paige was doing hallway checks of our floors to make sure no one was leaving the hotel or coming down here,”

“That’s so dumb,” Minho rolled his eyes, propping his elbows on the table and resting his head in his hands.

“Seriously, this lady is just spending her entire night going up and down the elevator to scope out all what , twenty of us?” Thomas chuckled, shaking his head.

“Exactly, she should be down here getting blacked out, maybe she’ll enjoy the trip a little more,” Aris added.

The five boys spent about two hours down at the bar, drinking at their table, occasionally being greeted by their other classmates that also managed to escape the professor and her self assigned guard duties. It was about midnight when Minho and Thomas decided to head back up to their room, almost being caught by Dr. Paige but managed to slip through the hotel door just in time. 

The two got changed into their pajamas and settled in their respective beds, Minho complaining that he shouldn’t have listened to Thomas and given up the nice bed because night one of trying to sleep with Teresa was unsuccessful.

“Shut up, Minho. It’s only Friday night, we aren’t leaving until Monday afternoon, you got plenty of time to sleep in a different bed, now go to bed,” Thomas said, reaching over the side table and plugging his phone in. 

“Yeah you’re right, tomorrow is a new day,” Minho smiled to himself and got comfortable under the covers. “Goodnight,”

“Goodnight Minho,”

* * *

Long story short, Gally and Aris were way off on the time they were supposed to be awake. Thomas and Minho met them downstairs in the bar area for the breakfast that came free with the rooms at around 7:15 and it was almost completely empty. A couple of tables were occupied with men in business suits drinking coffee, others with old ladies is ugly, tacky dresses and one table near the back where they sat last night with a family of six trying to keep everyone in their seats. The parents wrestled their four young children into the chairs almost the entire time the boys were eating. 

Now that they were up, fed and showered, all ready for the day, Dr. Paige sent a message in the groupchat saying good morning to everyone and said to meet her in the lobby by 10:30 to start the day. It was currently 8:00. 

The boys hung out in their room, aimlessly scrolling through social media on their separate sides of the room until about 9:30 when Gally and Aris knocked on their door. Them, it was the four of them sitting in silence in the room, minus Aris watching Tiktok videos on full volume. Winston sent a text to Thomas asking to hang in his room until it was time to go downstairs, and Thomas quickly sent a text back saying to head over.

It was now 10:00 and it was Gally, Aris, Winston and Jeff all in Minho and Thomas’s room but now it wasn’t silent scrolling, Jeff refused to sit in silence so he had no problem forcing everyone to talk to him. Which was a blessing since joking around with his classmates made time go by faster for Thomas. 

10:30 rolled around and the six boys headed downstairs to the lobby, packing into the small elevator as best they could. When they got to the front desk area, Dr. Paige was already taking attendance of the rest of the class who beat them down. 

“Alright, boys and girls look at me,” Dr. Paige started “The museum is a bit of a walk, so we will be taking the subway. Remember the rules, don’t touch anything if you can help it, don’t run off without telling me and always keep a buddy with you,” 

  
  


Once at the museum, the class split up into groups and went on their way around to view the artwork. Minho was supposed to stay with Thomas but of course patted his friend on the back and ran off to start his mission of finding Teresa. Not that he minded, Thomas would pick being alone in his own thoughts looking at cool art than listening to Minho complain that this was too much walking and he should have just stayed back at their dorm room. 

Thomas walked around the first floor aimlessly, taking pictures of certain sculptures and paintings that really caught his eye. Once more people piled into the building and it started getting nosy, Thomas pilled his earbuds out of pocket and connected them to his phone. He pressed on a random playlist and shoved his phone and earbud case back into his pocket and carried on with his stroll, now without the annoying sound of people chatting. 

Dr. Paige sent a text to the groupchat and reminded everyone that they did have classwork to do while they were here, because of course, it couldn’t just be a casual, fun field trip in the city. Today, they had to find a piece of art that really stuck out to them and take a picture of it. Then they had to send it to the groupchat and tell everyone why they chose that piece of art. Simple enough but still annoying to do. Thomas looked around the giant room he was currently standing in and tried to find his fake favorite piece of artwork that he could bullshit an explanation for later. He decided on a random statue that stood in on the left side of the room that had a small crowd around it. 

Once the crowd left, Thomas walked over to the chosen statue, pulling out his phone and snapped a few pictures of it from different angles. He looked through the photos of the statue and picked out his favorite, deleting the rest of them. He put his phone back into his pocket and walked around to the side of the statue that had a small plaque that explained the story of the statue and started reading. He only got halfway through before he felt eyes on him, he slowly looked up and glanced to his right. 

“Holy shit dude,” Thomas jumped, ripping one of his earbuds out.

“Oh I was right, you really couldn’t hear me,” The stranger next to him laughed “My bad, I thought you were just choosing to ignore me,” 

“Yeah you were right, I couldn’t hear you, damn.” Thomas took the other earbud out, shoving them both into his pocket. “Isn’t it the norm to not talk to random people or is the city some alternate universe where everyone is super friendly?” 

“Actually, I’ve learned that New York City is one of the most unfriendly places in this country, you can get killed for just looking at someone on the metro,”

“And you just figured to take that risk and scare the shit out of some dude while he was reading a stupid statue story?”

“Yeah, I did, and be nice, this is actually a pretty cool statue,” The stranger started, Thomas now noticing the very strong British accent. “This is actually by one of my favorite artists, he makes some nice stuff,”

Thomas just nodded and turned back to the statue. 

“Well I’m just using him for an assignment so he can be stupid,” Thomas joked, looking at the stranger again. “But you’re more than welcome to tell me about it so I can get a good grade for today,”

The stranger looked back at Thomas and flashed a smile. He had dark brown eyes that were almost black that stood out against his pale skin and golden hair. He looked about the same age as Thomas, if not maybe a year or two younger and was almost exactly the same height as him. Thomas decided that the stranger in front of him was pretty, not that it mattered. He met a lot of pretty strangers in public places. He never thought too much about them when he did because they were just that. Pretty strangers that he’d never see again and in an hour he would forget about them.

“Stupid statue here was actually sculpted 1512 and wasn’t completed until 1522, the artist took ten whole years to finish this beautiful piece of art,” The stranger sighed dramatically, walking around to the front of the statue. “I read online that the artist actually broke his arm while creating this which is why it took so long to finish, he fell from a ladder and landed on a pile of his tools and it took months for his arm to heal and years for him to finally get his fingers to work like they used to,” 

Thomas followed the stranger to the front of the statue, looking up at it.

“That’s insane, I’m surprised he actually finished it. I’d be too afraid to get back up on the ladder after that kind of fall,” 

“Me too. He also felt so attached to the statue he named it after his first born son, who ended up dying as a child due to some type of illness that was infecting the entire town,”

“Wow...I think your favorite artist had a shitty life,”

“He really did, I didn’t even tell you about how his wife ended up cheating on him with his cousins wife after their son died,”

“Huh?”

“Crazy I know, the dude had some real family issues,” 

Thomas stared at the stranger, who was just in awe staring up at the statue. Thomas followed his eyes and looked at the statue as well.

“Wanna know another crazy fact?” The stranger asked, not looking away from the statues face.

“Sure,”

“Ladders weren’t invented until like the late 1800’s,”

Thomas whipped his head to face the stranger who was now grinning from ear to ear, still looking up at the statue.

“You made the whole story up didn’t you?” Thomas asked, stepping away from the stranger, shaking his head.

The stranger nodded and looked back at Thomas, holding his hand out.

“I’ve never heard of this artist before in my life, and I have no idea what this statue is even supposed to be. Name’s Newt,” 

Thomas blinked, still staring at the stranger.

Newt.

“Thomas,” He took Newt’s hand and shook it gently, still confused by the entire interaction. 

The two boys stood in front of the statue for a few moments before other visitors came to view it, then Newt pulled Thomas aside and they stood by the wall not to get in the way of any of the other guests who were sure to not have an experience with the statue like Thomas just had.

“Something tells me that lying to strangers in the city is also not the norm and can also get you killed,” Thomas states.

Newt shrugs, leaning against the wall and looking up at the ceiling. 

“I think the rules only apply to locals, you’re allowed to mess with tourists,” Newt explains, still staring up at the ceiling.

Thomas looks up to see what the boy in front of him is so interested in.

The ceiling is covered in sky lights, every other ceiling tile is replaced with a window that’s letting in natural light and giving a full view of the birds flying over. 

“I’m not a tourist,” Thomas says, looking away from the ceiling.

“You live here?” Newt asks, looking back at Thomas, furrowing his eyebrows.

“No, I’m here on a field trip for University,” 

“You’re a tourist then, Tommy,” 

Tommy?

Thomas’s phone buzzed in his pocket before he could reply. He pulled it out and quickly glanced at the message. 

  
  


**Metropolitan Group Chat.**

**Dr. Paige:**

**It is 11:45, I want everyone to meet me in the cafeteria on the main floor in 15 minutes for lunch.**

“It was nice meeting you, I think, but I gotta go,” Thomas put his phone back in his pocket. 

“You’re done already? You’re still on the first floor you know, there’s plenty left to see,” 

“Oh I know, I just have to meet my professor and rest of my class at the cafeteria,”

“So you’ll be back?” 

“I mean yeah, I guess,” 

“Great, see you later then, Tommy,” 

Newt flashed another smile at Thomas and brushed past him, barely touching his shoulder on the way.

* * *

Thomas managed to go the rest of the time in the museum without running into (or getting spooked by) Newt, which he was thankful for. He ate his lunch with Winston and Jeff since Minho did manage to chat up Teresa and was on his own little lunch date with her across the cafeteria near the windows.

Since his chatty roommate was off on his own, Thomas was able to come up with the short explanation as to why he picked that statue as his assignment, he wrote his explanation in his notes app and had Jeff proofread it to make sure it was up to Dr. Paige’s expectations. It was of course, Thomas was a pretty good student and usually never slacked when it came to his work but when he did he was always able to bullshit his way through it and managed to get a decent grade. 

When the class got back to the hotel it was dinner time and Dr. Paige told everyone to either order room service or they were allowed to venture out of the hotel to get food somewhere in the neighborhood but had to text her of course. 

Minho and Thomas decided on ordering room service since both of them were tired of walking and just wanted to relax for the night after walking basically all day. Minho called the front desk to order their food while Thomas sat on the small sofa and tried to figure out how to work the TV. 

Once the food was ordered, Minho joined Thomas on the sofa, sitting back and watched his friend struggle with the TV. 

“You do realize the TV comes with a little book that tells you all the channels,” Minho stated, pulling his phone out of his pocket. “Makes it real easy to figure out,” 

Thomas glared at the boy sitting next to him and handed the remote to him with a huff.

“Then you figure it out, go find the dumb little book,” 

Minho shrugged and got up from the couch, walked over to the TV stand and pulled open one of the drawers. 

“Found the “dumb little book” for you,”

“Fuck you,”

Minho smiled and sat back on the sofa next to Thomas with the TV channel book. 

“Unless you’re Teresa, I’ll have to take a rain check on that,” 

“How did you little date with her go today anyways,” Thomas asked, putting his feet up on the coffee table in front of the sofa and leaning back into the light gray cushion behind him.

“It went great actually, we walked around the museum together and had lunch together. And yes, Thomas I did see you, Jeff and Winston all staring at us across the room you weren’t very sneaky about it,”

“Who said we were trying to be sneaky?”

“Whatever. Anyways, I was suppose to actually hang out there tonight but her friend wanted to walk around the neighborhood and find somewhere to eat outside,”

“Oh so you’re leaving me all alone tonight?” Thomas pretended to sound upset, letting out a dramatic sigh. “Whatever will I do without my best friend here to spend time with,” 

Minho lightly tapped Thomas on the head with the TV remote, rolling his eyes.

“Shut up man, you have the entire room to yourself tonight, don’t act like you aren’t ecstatic,”

The boys watched a random TV channel until someone knocked on their door. Thomas jumped up from his seat on the sofa and opened the door to find no one there but a cart that had their dinner on it. He pulled the cart inside and shut the door before pushing the cart towards the sofa. 

“Dinner is served,” Thomas declared, grabbing the two plates of food off the cart and placing them on the coffee table. 

  
  


Once they finished their meals, Minho headed out to meet up with Teresa for the night, taking the food cart with him to leave in the hallway. 

“Don’t have too much fun without me,” Minho said as he closed the door, leaving Thomas alone in the room for the first time since they got here.

Now what?

Thomas laid down on his bed, looking up at the ceiling. Nothing exciting about the ceiling, unlike the one at the museum that was covered in sky lights. Boring white painted ceiling that had tiny cracks scattered across it compared to the bright blue sky that showed through the sky lights at the museum that let in so much sunlight that they didn’t need any lights installed in that room. Thomas thought about how the sky could be visible from the first floor but remembered the article Dr. Paige read out loud one day in the first semester about how the museum was doing renovations and how there were new additions added to the first floor to make room for more art. Without even realizing it, Thomas was in a new exhibit looking at a somewhat new addition to the museum with a random British boy.

Newt.

Just a pretty stranger. That’s all Newt was. Well, could he be just a pretty stranger or was it different now that Thomas actually knew his name? No, it couldn’t be a massive difference. They met once for a few minutes and then they parted ways. Newt probably didn’t even remember Thomas let alone his name. 

“He was really pretty though,” Thomas said quietly to himself.

  
  


The next morning was basically the same as yesterday except for the fact that Thomas didn’t wake up at 7 in the morning for no reason and wait three and a half hours to actually meet in the lobby. He woke up at 9, made it downstairs for breakfast by 9:15 and went back up to the door at 9:45 and finished getting ready for the second day of aimlessly walking around the museum. 

**Metropolitan Museum Group Chat**

**Dr. Paige:**

**Good morning, meet me downstairs at the same place as yesterday at 10:30. Make sure to bring your sketch books and drawing utensils. Today’s assignment is to draw a scene you see while at the museum today.**

Thomas made his way downstairs, with his backpack on that held his sketchbook and pencil case. He ended up meeting up with Minho and Teresa in the elevator, making sure to nudge his friend in the side with his elbow as a silent way of saying “congrats.”

The three of them walked up to the rest of the class in front of the professor and waited for the last few students to come downstairs. 

The group made their way back to the hotel, got the same buddy system as yesterday and got to go free to do their assignment. Thomas patted Minho on the back as he walked up behind him and Teresa holding hands as they walked towards the stairs. 

“Second dates are more important than the first, don’t fuck this one up,” Thomas winked and jogged up the stairs before his friend could make a sarcastic remark back. 

Somewhere in the back of Thomas’s mind, he hoped the pretty stranger - Newt, would come up from behind and scare up like he did yesterday. Which was why Thomas refused to put his earbuds in, no matter how annoyed he was at the noise of the other visitors talking around him. 

Thomas found a small bench tucked away in the corner of the room he was currently in, that faced a large wooden carving that was enclosed in a class box to be kept safe from any nasty fingers. 

“Easy enough to draw, I suppose” Thomas mumbled quietly to himself, pulling his backpack off and opening the zipper to grab his art supplies.

Once he was settled on his bench, Thomas decided to pop in his earbuds, coming to terms with the fact that the British boy was not going to pop up again. 

He played his favorite playlist and started working on his assignment, only looking up quickly every few minutes to double check his reference. Only a couple times did he have to pause his work because a crowd of people either walked past at a frustratingly slow pace or a group would stand around the wood craving for several minutes, reading the plaque along with it. Thomas didn’t really mind, his wrist was starting to hurt and he needed a bit of a break from his sketch every once in a while. 

He was on a roll, halfway through with his drawing when he felt his right earbud pop out of place and he quickly dropped his pencil and turned to attempt to catch the falling earbud. 

But ended up spotting a body behind him, seated next to him on the bench. 

“Hi Tommy,” 

“Newt? What the hell man,”

Thomas turned to sit on the bench the right way, since he had spent the past twenty minutes sitting on the bench sideways, his legs dangling over the side that was meant to be the armrest.

“What? Did I spook you again?”

“Yeah you kinda did actually. Do they not teach real greetings over there in England or something?” 

“Actually,” Newt tilted his head holding his hand out, palm up, showing Thomas the earbud. “I think we have proper greetings compared to you American’s,” 

“Yeah I’m sure,” Thomas took the earbud and shoved it into his pocket along with the one that was still in his ear. “Are you stalking me or something?” 

“If I was stalking you, I would have been at your window last night watching you sleep,” 

Thomas stayed quiet.

“No Tommy, I’m not stalking you. My school has a class here Friday through Sunday to learn about art placement and some boring shit like that. Don’t worry, the stranger from the museum isn’t purposely trying to freak you out,” 

“You go to school here?”

“Well not here here. My University is like 30 minutes away, but they have an optional class here in the cafeteria for like five minutes and then send us on our way to spend the rest of the time doing our work wherever we want,” 

“You choose to spend your weekends doing school work?”

The British boy shrugged and looked down at Thomas’s lap, taking a peek at the sketch book.

“What’s that for?”

Thomas looked at the drawing and held it up to show Newt.

“Assignment for the day, we had to pick a scene to draw, so I just kinda picked,” Thomas looked back to the wooden carving. “That...thing”

“Hey, it’s not just a thing, that was actually made by my favorite art-”

Before Newt could finish his sentence, Thomas whipped his head back around and shot a glare at him. 

“Your fake favorite artist story isn’t gonna work this time, I’m not dumb enough to fall for it twice,” 

The blond boy flashed  _ that  _ smile again and leaned his head back against the wall. 

“I have plenty of other stories to tell if you don’t wanna hear my artist sob story again,” 

The two boys sat on the little bench tucked away in the corner as Newt told Thomas some stories that may or may not have been completely true, not that Thomas actually cared about the realistic anyways. He was too focused on trying not to be too obvious with his staring.

Thomas was never one to really question the concept of sexuality, he just kind of was attracted to whoever he was attracted to without much thought behind it. If he saw a cute girl, then he would go over and chat her up. If you say a cute boy, then he would go over and chat him up. It wasn’t a secret that he was bisexual, but he never actually “came out” to anyone officially either, it was just an unsaid thing in Thomas’s social circle. Which was why he had no problem casually telling Minho about his pretty stranger last night during dinner, and Minho just brushed it off and continued his story about Teresa. 

“Tommy? Are you even listening to me?” Newt asked, waving a hand in front of Thomas’s face, trying to grab his attention. “Earth to American boy,” 

Thomas blinked.

“Yeah, yeah my bad, I spaced out,” He said shifting in his seat and gently pushing the blond’s hand away. “Sorry, continue,”

“Whatcha thinking about?”

“Oh uh, nothing honestly, just...yeah nothing interesting,”

“Not more interesting than my story, I’m sure,”

Thomas nodded and glanced down at the drawing that still laid in his lap. He decided that he wasn’t happy with it, not even a little bit. He turned the page of the sketchbook to a fresh, clean page and looked back up at Newt.

“Can I use you for my assignment?” Thomas asked, causing Newt to furrow his eyebrows.

“Me? What do I have to do exactly?”

“Nothing really, just sit and look pretty,” 

“Sit and look pretty?”

“Yeah, so basically just sit that’s your only job,”

Newt tilted his head and stared at the boy beside him, processing what he had just heard but Thomas jumped up from the bench, holding onto his sketchbook and picked up the backpack. 

“Come, we’ll find a better spot that’s not as busy,”

Newt stood up and bent his knee, bringing his foot up and grabbing his ankle, stretching his leg. 

“Oh thank God, that bench was starting to hurt my ass,” Newt started, dropping his foot to stretch the other. “And not in the good way either,” 

Thomas wasn’t sure how to take that comment exactly, so he just ignored it. The two walked around the second floor of the museum for a few minutes, looking for a decent spot to sit while Newt modeled for Thomas’s assignment. Eventually, Newt grabbed Thomas’s shirt sleeve and dragged him back downstairs to the first floor, remembering the quiet Chinese garden area that was hidden away that most people walked right past because it’s tucked away in the back of the building. Once outside, Newt let go of the sleeve and led Thomas into the Asian themed courtyard. 

“Damn, this is actually pretty cool, I completely missed this yesterday,” Thomas said, stepping onto the stone pathway. “And I thought I did a decent job, covering the entire first floor,” 

“Trust me, plenty of people don’t even realize this is here. My class had us do a lesson on outdoor exhibits which is the only reason I know about this,” 

“Ah, so your weekend class isn’t too bad,”

Newt shook his head and glanced around the area, stopping on a small patch of brushes and various flowers in the corner.

“How good are you at drawing plants?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading !! pls comment i need constant validation (:


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took way longer than expected since i forgot how much i dread writing smut scenes ... but i keep attempting because i apparently like to make myself suffer !! anyways here you go sorry again for the wait, enjoy !!

Floor 5. Room 12.

Newt wasn’t entirely sure how he ended up with Thomas’s hotel key card in his pocket - well he did know, but it all happened so fast in the span of what felt like a millisecond when it was actually a normal amount of time. But for Newt, it was a blur. 

He and Thomas sat in the hidden exhibit outside for almost an hour, not saying much. Thomas was focused on his drawing and Newt was focusing on staying as still as possible, afraid of messing up the other boy's sketch. Both however were trying their hardest not to stare at each other, which didn’t work out that well since they ended up catching each others eye several times within the hour and each time it happened they would quickly look away and try to hide the small smile that crept across their faces. 

The shiny metal door of the elevator slid open, and Newt stepped to the side to let out an older couple before he stepped into the small box. The doors shut without anyone else joining him, which he was thankful for.

Floor 5.

Newt pressed the button beside the black engraved number five on the wall near the doors and watched the lights above the door blink as the elevator went up. 

  
  


The boys were only just starting to strike up a conversation when Thomas’s phone buzzed and he unfortunately had to leave the exhibit to meet his class at the cafeteria for lunch. He was sweet and asked Newt if he wanted to join him, but the blond declined, making up some excuse that he had to get some stuff done at home anyways. 

That’s where the blur comes in. Somehow, Thomas charmed his way in and slipped a card into Newt’s palm and flashing a smile before picking up his bookbag and turning toward the door that led back into the museum. 

_ Ding _

Newt was brought out of his thoughts by the elevator sounding that it had arrived on the designated floor. He stepped out of the elevator and stood in the middle of the long hallway, looking from the left then to the right. 

Room 512.

Newt pulled the black and silver key card out of his hoodie pocket, checking for the seventh time since he’d left his apartment that he had the right room number. He gripped it tightly, almost afraid that if it fell out of his hand that it would fall right through the floor and Thomas would never want to see him again. 

Then he was there, standing in front of the door. He leaned forward slightly, almost pressing his ear to the wooden door, trying to listen for Thomas’s voice - or anybody's voice if that. But it was silent. 

It was currently 11:30pm, maybe Thomas already went to bed, forgetting about the interaction he had this morning with Newt. 

“Should I knock?” The boy thought to himself, staring at the key card in his hand. “No, it’s fine just use the card, he gave it to you for a reason, he would have just told you to knock and not given you a way to get into the room if he wanted to open the door himself,” 

Newt decided to just use the card to open the door and pop his head in and see if Thomas was even awake, if he was then he could just let himself out as quietly as he let himself in and can just leave the card on a table or something to let Thomas know he didn’t bail on him. 

He slid the card across the black screen that was attached to the doorknob, waiting for the tiny light to turn green. Once it did, Newt grabbed the handle and slowly turned it, trying to be as quiet as possible in case the other boy was asleep. 

“Oh hey,” Newt heard a voice say from across the room before he even had a chance to get fully through the doorway. “Surprised you actually showed up,” 

It was Thomas, obviously, but he still jumped a little. 

“Bloody hell,” Newt huffed, closing the door. “Of course I showed up, pretty sure the hotel can fine you for not returning all of the cards at the end of your trip,” 

Thomas just laughed. 

“What are you doing sitting on the sofa in complete silence anyways?” Newt asked, making his way over to sit next to Thomas.

“I was scrolling through Twitter, my professor is weird and told everyone to be in their rooms quietly by eleven so I didn’t have the choice to throw a wild party while I waited for you,” 

Newt nodded and sat on the sofa, holding out the key card which Thomas took and placed on the coffee table. 

“Makes sense, rowdy college kids need a bedtime too,” Newt joked, kicking his shoes off so he could sit criss cross on the sofa. “What did she think of your drawing? Was she impressed by how great your model was?” 

“Yeah,” Thomas laughed. “She said it was a great piece and the model I chose was perfect,” 

“Did she actually say that or are you messing with me?”

“She said something along those lines, I’m just trying to fuel your ego,”

“What so I can be as egotistical as you? No thanks,”

“I’m not egotistical,”

“You have to have some type of ego problem if your way of inviting someone over to hook up is to just hand them a hotel key and run away,”

Thomas laughed again, holding his hands up, pretending to surrender.

“Listen, I was running on short notice, I didn’t realize time flew by that much and was actually shocked when I got the text saying to meet in the cafeteria,” Thomas explained, putting his hands down. “Time flies,”

Newt nodded.

“Time flies when you’re having fun,”

“Time flies when you’re sketching a cute guy,”

Thomas locks eyes with Newt, who was already staring directly at him, not sure if he heard Thomas correctly.

“Cute guy huh,” Newt teased, stretching his legs out to rest his feet on the coffee table. “You think I’m cute?” 

“You really think I just hand out keys to anyone?”

“Some people’s standards are pretty low,” 

Thomas raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, you think my standard’s are low then?” Thomas scooted the slightest bit closer to Newt and turned his body to face him, resting his one arm on the back of the sofa. 

“No, if your standards were low then you could have chatted up the first person you saw in the lobby,” 

“You know what? I think you’re right, I should have done that,” Thomas teased. “In fact, I might just kick you out and go hunt down someone in the lobby,” 

“That would be quite rude, Tommy. I know we talked about how bad American’s are at proper greetings but I think we should have discussed manners,”

Thomas laughed  _ again. _

Newt didn’t mind. He adored Thomas’s laugh, it was loud but he could tell it was 100% genuine and Newt did let himself laugh quietly with Thomas. Once the boys were done laughing, the room was silent. Just how Dr. Paige wanted it. It wasn’t an awkward silence, just a nice, calm silence that the boys enjoyed for a moment. 

Thomas took the moment as a good time to scoot closer, almost right next to Newt who watched him, smiling softly once he was settled again.

“Hi,” Thomas smiled back, ignoring the rapid heart in his chest from him suddenly becoming extremely nervous.

He was usually a pro at stuff like this, he had no problem kissing people, normal dates, one night stands, anything in between, he was completely chill. But for some reason, the way Newt looked at him, ever since that first time they locked eyes at the museum, Thomas’s heart wouldn’t shut up.

“What’s your plan, Tommy?” 

“My plan was to kiss you, if you’re fine with it,”

Newt nodded, trying to ignore the heat already rushing to his cheeks.

“I like that plan, a lot actually,”

Thomas reached over, gently grabbing the blond’s chin, tilting his head up ever so slightly. Newt closed his eyes as Thomas leaned in, waiting for Thomas’s soft pink lips to reach his own. 

But they never came. 

* * *

  
  


“Thomas, man I know you told me not to come back tonight because you had a cute guy coming over but I forgot something and I jus-” 

Newt’s eyes popped open and he turned around to look towards the door, where the sudden voice was coming from as Thomas pulled back and scooted away quickly.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re cool Minho, don’t worry,” Thomas said sarcastically, pretty sure that his friend wouldn’t pick up on his tone at all. “Take your time,” 

“Thanks, I’ll be super quick,” Minho rushed past the sofa and squatted next to his bed near the wall, glancing up at the two boys. “You are cute, maybe Thomas does have a decent taste,” 

Now Newt really couldn’t ignore the heat of his cheeks, he was sure he was completely red now. 

“Thank you?” Newt looked over at Thomas, who rolled his eyes.

“Minho, you have your own date leave him alone,” Thomas looked back at Newt. “I’m sorry for him,”

Newt just smiled, understanding. 

“Okay, okay. I found it, I’ll leave now,” Minho stood up and kicked his suitcase back under the bed. “Bye Thomas, bye cute guy,” 

“Leave!” Thomas pointed to the door, making Minho put his hands up in surrender.

“I’m leaving, I’m leaving,” 

Minho walked to the door, opening it before turning back around to look at the boys. 

“Also, I got a new key from the front desk because I lost mine,” Minho explained. “I think I dropped it somewhere in the museum,” 

“Minho,” Thomas warned.

“Alright! I’m going now, you can get back to whatever you were doing,” 

And with that, Minho shut the door, leaving the boys in silence again. But this time, it was less calm and a bit awkward.

“So…” Newt started, trying to break the silence. “He seems...nice,”

“Oh he has quite the personality,” Thomas shakes his head, looking down at his hands. “Again, I apologize for him,”

“Don’t apologize, it’s really fine,” 

“If I’m being honest, I don’t know what to do now,” 

Newt laughed, pulling his legs back up to his chest, hugging them and resting his chin on his knees. 

“I think it’s a little late to go out and get dinner,” The blond started, looking down at the coffee table where the room service menu laid. “I do love desserts,”

“Do you like wine?”

The two ended up eating strawberry cheesecake and drinking the cheapest wine they could pick on the menu (Dr. Paige was not covering the cost of room service and Thomas knew alcohol in a New York hotel was not cheap). Thomas figured out how to work the TV since Minho wasn’t around to rip the channel paper out of his hands seconds after picking it up, and found a random movie that didn’t seem boring for the first ten seconds it played on the screen. 

Newt ended up scooting closer to Thomas every few minutes during the movie, careful not to spill the wine on either the sofa or himself and Thomas rested his arm on the back of the sofa, glancing every time Newt tried to sneak his way closer. 

Halfway through the movie, Newt was almost sitting directly next to Thomas, fighting the urge to just curl right into his side and stay there for the rest of the night. Thomas was now positioned with his back against the arm of the sofa, almost laying down with his one leg resting against the cushions and the other hanging off the edge. He did end up focusing less on Newt and his journey to get as close to him as possible and was more zoned in on the movie. 

“Fuck it,” Newt blurted out suddenly, taking Thomas’s eyes off the screen as he leaned over and put his glass on the coffee table.

“Huh? Sorry, I was really into the movi -  _ mmph! _ ” 

Newt has leaned over, almost laying on top of Thomas and kissed him.

It took a few seconds for Thomas to react to the sudden pressure on his lips, he was in slight shock that the blond was the one to initiate the first kiss but once he realized what was happening, he had no problem with it. 

The boys moved their lips together for a moment, trying to find their rhythm, once they did Thomas moved his hands to grab the smaller boys hips, unconsciously bringing their bodies closer. Newt hummed against Thomas’s lips at the feeling, quickly bringing his legs over Thomas’s, straddling him, not breaking the kiss for a moment. 

Thomas darted his tongue across Newt’s bottom lip and Newt was quick to allow Thomas to enter his mouth, dragging his hands up to cup Thomas’s cheeks. Thomas’s was trying to focus on exploring Newt’s mouth but the blond slowly started rocking back and forth.

“Mmm, god,” Thomas moaned out quietly against Newt’s lips. ”Newt,”

Newt smirked and pulled away slightly, just letting his lips brush against Thomas’s softly. 

“Yeah, Tommy?”

“You taste like strawberries,” 

“Oh I wonder why,” Newt teased, pulling back so he was sitting upright on Thomas’s hips, moving his hands down to rest on Thomas’s stomach.

Newt started playing with the bottom hem of Thomas’s shirt, rolling the fabric between his slender fingers, looking at the boy through his eyelashes. 

“Can I take this off for you?” Newt asked quietly, already pulling the article of clothing up as if he knew the answer before Thomas answered. 

“Yeah - wait. Newt, hold on a second,” Thomas shook his head and grabbed the others wrist, stopping him from pulling the shirt up any further. 

Newt stared at Thomas, letting go of his shirt. 

“I just,” Thomas started, trying to sit up “I think we should like, you know,” 

Newt tilted his head in confusion and slid back so he was now straddling Thomas’s lap.

“Should what?”

“Listen, I like you a lot and I think we should take this a little bit slower,”

The blond stayed quiet for a moment, eyes darting all over Thomas’s face which was just inches away, trying to find any sign of him joking. 

“With all due respect, Tommy, I don’t want to take it slow,” 

Thomas was taken aback, still trying to process what Newt said when the boy's lips were back, pressing down his jaw all the way to his neck with his hands finding their way back to his shirt. 

“I like you too, obviously,” Newt mumbled against Thomas’s skin. “But I think we can manage some fun and talk about it later, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, yeah I think so,” Thomas tilted his head back slightly, giving Newt full access to his neck, which he appreciated. “Just, can we just wait to like,”

Newt cut Thomas off, pressing his lips to his quickly. 

“You talk too much, we won’t do anything serious,” Newt gently ran his thumb across Thomas’s bottom lip. “I’m gonna do all the work, okay?”

Thomas nodded.

“Good, now just sit and look pretty,” 

* * *

  
  


Newt went back to work on kissing Thomas’s neck as he slowly rocked his hips, knowing exactly how it made Thomas feel. The other moved his right hand to the back of Newt’s neck, letting his fingers slide through the golden brown hair, gripping it gently as he felt Newt grinding against his lap.

“Take this off for me,” Newt demanded, fingers looping through the neck hole of Thomas’s shirt.

“Yeah,” Thomas nodded quickly, pushing Newt’s hand away from the fabric before pulling it over his head, tossing it somewhere on the floor without a second thought. 

The blond went right back to touching Thomas, peppering kisses across his collarbone and down his chest. 

“I’m not usually this demanding,” Newt started, scooting down Thomas’s legs to sit on his thighs. “But I’ve been waiting to do this since I first spotted you at the museum. So forgive me, but I don’t think I can keep my mouth off you any longer,”

Thomas nodded, staring blankly at the boy in front of him, too entranced with the sight ofhim to pay full attention to what he was saying. He just knew he liked the sound of whatever Newt was saying, so he could only nod. 

“You have no idea what I just said do you?” Newt chuckled, running a finger down Thomas’s stomach, pausing at the waistband of his boxers that were peeking out over his jeans. “You’re on cloud nine, love” 

Thomas watched as Newt undid the button of his jeans and pulled them down along with his boxers, just enough to have room to work with, the sudden rush of the cool hotel room air causing Thomas to let out a gasp.

“We’ll keep these on, just in case your friend decides to come interrupt us again,” Newt whispered quietly, almost as if he was talking to himself. 

“I think I’d have to kill him if he walked in on us,” Thomas finally spoke.

Newt reached down, wrapping his fingers around Thomas’s already semi-hard member.

“You wouldn’t want him to join us? You just go straight to murder?” Newt asked, innocently tilting his head as he slowly started flicking his wrist.

“Newt,”

“Yeah Tommy?”

“Remember when you told me that I talk too much?”

“A few minutes ago, yeah,”

“I think you should listen to yourself,”

“Are you telling me to shut up?”   
  
“If I say yes will you still blow me?”   
  


“Obviously,”

“Then yes,”

Newt rolled his eyes and leaned down brushing his lips over the head of Thomas’s cock, pausing his wrist movements. Thomas reached over and ran his fingers through the boy's hair, gripping the golden locks gently. As Newt wrapped his lips around Thomas’s shaft, he slid his hands down to the boy's thighs, giving them an almost playful squeeze before bobbing his head slowly. 

Thomas tilted his head back, looking up at the ceiling, the same boring white painted ceiling that had tiny cracks scattered acrossed it that he stared at the night he came home from the museum after meeting Newt. The same boy who was making subtle flirtatious jokes about art at the museum was now in his hotel room, slowly taking Thomas’s cock down his throat. 

Time flies.

* * *

  
  


Newt was long gone by the time Thomas woke up, which was no surprise to him honestly. The message that it was just a quick hook up was loud and clear, considering they never got to have that talk about their oddly casual confessions last night. 

Thomas sat up, immediately feeling the crick in his neck from the awkward position he slept in all night.

Stupid sofa. 

He found his phone on the floor almost under the coffee table, most likely fallen there sometime during last night's  _ event.  _ Checking the time, Thomas groaned and rolled his eyes, dropping the phone back on the floor and laying back down to his original place on the sofa. 

It was only 6:30 in the morning, no need to get up now when they didn’t have to leave for the museum for another four hours. So, Thomas tried his best to get comfortable on the sofa again, too lazy to get up and get into the perfectly fine bed a few feet away. He was also too lazy to finally take off the clothes from the previous day. Wishing that Newt did him the favor and actually took his pants off, jeans were not the best article of clothing to sleep in, no matter what you were sleeping on. 

Laying there with his eyes clothes for what seemed like two hours (it was only really three minutes) Thomas got bored and opened his eyes, reaching down for his phone on the floor once again. 

But something else caught his eye. 

On the coffee table, there was a piece of paper that was folded in a strange way, where the key card Newt handed him back last night used to be. Thomas propped himself up on one elbow, switching his reach to grab the paper. Looking closer, he realized it was a small piece of paper that was ripped out of the notepad that the hotel leaves on the nightstand for each guest. The paper was folded to make an origami dog face, which made Thomas chuckle under his breath. 

He opened the paper, revealing a note in unfamiliar handwriting. 

_ Morning Tommy, _

_ Hope you don’t mind, but I stole the key again since I’m sure you’d like to hang out again...possibly have that talk we never got to have since we fell asleep.  _

_ Here’s my number in case I don’t see you at the museum today.  _

_ Newt. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading !! pls comment i need constant validation thank you (:

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading !!


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